1. 1 John 1:5-10

2. 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; 

3. 7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

4. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

5. Spiritual disciplines are a deliberate tool for what the early church termed the “Mortification” of our flesh. Usually they engage some form of “denial” of something self-oriented in order to “receive” grace.

6. One skill our self-justifying world lacks is the art of the apology
One skill our self-justifying world lacks is the art of the apology. We don’t know how to say we are sorry.
We don’t know how to restore others after or recover from shame.
We are committed to being principley vs relationally right.

7. Confession is where we agree that God is right about something and that we have acted differently.

8. Confession is specific and grasps the weight of sin in principle and relational context.

9. Confession announces the principle wrong and humbly seeks forgiveness for the offense.

10. Confession invites absolution in a definitively restorative way for the relationship(s).

11. Confession does not encourage sin, but does fertilize grace where resurrecion is celebrated.